God of All Comfort

TRANSCRIPT

Read 2 Corinthians 1:3-4

2 Corinthians chapter one, verses three and four, say "Blessed, be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort who comforts us in all our affliction so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort, with which we ourselves are comforted by God." The passage here in second Corinthians talks about comfort. The God of all comfort, in fact. We enjoy fires. It's fun to sit around. It's kind of a relaxing time, comfortable. It's comfortable. In fact, a lot of times working with guys, we'll sit around a campfire and man, the stories come out and hearts are shared and because it's a comfortable, it's a safe, it's a safe place. It's a good place to just hang out and enjoy each other. And that's good to have times like that because life can be hard. We all go through difficulty. We all have challenges we face; we all sin, and we all get sinned against. There's guilt. There's shame. There's confusion. There's discouragement. There's despondency and just difficulty. The Bible uses the term afflictions. It says in here, this God of all comfort who comforts us in all our affliction, which I love the word all, because all means all.

It means even those things we don't understand, the things that are difficult, that we just can't wrap our minds around. Like logically: "Why, why would God even allow something like this to take place?" Those are things we have to wrap our minds around, or we get the wrong idea of who God is. God is the God of mercy. He's the God of mercy. And I like the term, the two terms that are even used for God here, God, himself, but also the Father. It's the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort. It's like, as a dad, I want to be merciful. In fact, I'm so merciful sometimes that I think maybe it's overboard. You know, I want good things. I want easy things. I want happy things. This is the God, the Father of being merciful to us because we sin, because others sin against us, and because we have hard things. We are but dust and God recognizes that we are broken and the people all around us are broken. So we have things happen to us that are difficult. And yet right here, it's so refreshing and so awesome to understand that the one who comforts us in our affliction does so, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction. Again, I love that word. Any, any and all, great words because you can't really exempt any affliction.

You can't say "Oh, but, but you can't help me because you don't know." Well, of course, I don't know. I haven't been through what you've been through, but I have been through what I've been through and I've seen God comfort me and be merciful to me. I've seen Him call me whenever I was so such an enemy of His and yet He and His grace was merciful and comforted me. It says here, "the comfort that we may comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort, with which we ourselves are comforted by God." You know, that's just an amazing, awesome picture of a gracious, good God that, in the difficult things of life, He's merciful and He brings us comfort. That's one of the things that I really enjoy about being here in this place at Victory Family Ministries is that that we have an opportunity to help people that are going through tough things and help them see the hope of God. And that God is a God of all comfort, able to bring comfort to any affliction.

​That's comfort. That's mercy. I have a God of mercy and a God of all comfort.